On the 28th, a notice for the use of recovery consumption coupons is attached in front of a rental store inside an Emart in Seoul. According to Emart, among the 2,600 rental stores located in 156 Emart and Traders locations nationwide, about 960 stores can use the recovery consumption coupons, which is about 37% of the total. /Courtesy of Yonhap News Agency

23% of small and medium-sized corporations in Korea believe that the management environment will improve next year.

According to the '2025 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Financial Status Survey Results' announced by Industrial Bank of Korea on the 28th, 23.1% of respondents expect management conditions to improve next year compared to this year, up 6.7 percentage points from last year (16.4%).

The survey was conducted on 4,500 small and medium-sized corporations with sales exceeding 500 million won from March to May.

The percentage of respondents expecting a worsening management environment next year decreased from 20.3% last year to 17.3% this year, while those expecting it to remain similar dropped from 63.3% to 59.6%.

2026 Business conditions forecast. /Courtesy of IBK Industrial Bank

23.9% of corporations anticipate a rise in funding demand compared to this year, up 9.0 percentage points from last year's 14.9%. Conversely, the number of corporations expecting a decrease in funding demand fell from 22.9% to 18.1%.

An official from Industrial Bank of Korea noted, "As expectations for an improvement in management conditions are emerging for next year, we will spare no effort in supporting the recovery of the small and medium-sized enterprise economy."

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